137-LS-02

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

UCI TO PRESENT DISTINGUISHED FACULTY LECTURES

Prof. Janice G. Plastino to Receive Aldrich Service Award

Irvine, Calif., Oct. 1, 2002 -- UC Irvine's Academic Senate will host an evening of Distinguished Faculty Lectures at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 15, in the University Club. The Distinguished Faculty Lecture awards salute those who have made significant contributions to teaching, research and university service and are among the most prestigious honors University of California faculty members can receive from their colleagues.

Larry Overman, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, will be honored with the Distinguished Faculty Lectureship Award for Research. Overman's presentation is titled "Making Molecules."

In his research, Overman works at one of the most fundamental levels of chemistry, creating molecules -- both those that have never before existed and molecules identical to those found in nature. He and his team search for ways to build complex compounds from inexpensive precursors, particularly molecules that show promise as medicines. They also construct complex molecules that serve as focal points for developing new chemical tools -- in Overman's case, the chemical reactions that convert one molecule to another. Overman holds five patents for his discoveries.

Among the most honored organic chemists in the United States and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, Overman is the recipient of more than 25 distinguished awards and fellowships, including selection as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the 2002 Arthur C. Cope Award by the American Chemical Society. In 1994, he was named a Distinguished Professor, UCI's highest academic title.

The Distinguished Assistant Professor Award for Teaching will be presented to Sharon Block, assistant professor of history, who will speak on "Thinking About Rape in Early America."

Block's current research focuses on sexual coercion in colonial America. By distinguishing the crime of rape from the coercion of sex, she shows that men coerced sex far more often than scattered rape prosecutions suggest. According to Block, social and economic power underwrote sexual power, both in the act itself and in a community's reaction to the act. Early Americans reinforced existing racial, class and gender hierarchies by viewing rape as a transgressive social intercourse. In opposition to modern notions that patriarchy is a cause of rape, for early Americans, a properly ordered patriarchy was the solution to rape. Block hopes that once students learn to identify historical power dynamics, they may be more likely to make connections to social and institutional inequities in the present.

Block received her doctorate from Princeton University and her master's and bachelor's degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. She spent two years as a National Endowment for the Humanities post-doctoral fellow at the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture in Williamsburg, Va., and another two years as an assistant professor at the University of Iowa before joining UCI.

In addition, Janice G. Plastino, professor of dance, will be presented with the Daniel G. Aldrich, Jr. Distinguished University Service Award.

Plastino, who directs research in dance science at UCI, teaches modern dance, choreography, kinesiology, injury prevention and dance conditioning. Her publications include "The Dancer Prepares: Modern Dance for Beginners," a book co-authored with James Penrod, which has been in print for 24 years. She has published numerous articles and is a contributing author for the books "Preventing Dance Injuries: An Interdisciplinary Approach" and "The Dancer As Athlete." Plastino has reported her findings in dance science to scientific societies throughout the United States, Russia and South Korea. An active choreographer and director, her credits as choreographer and performer include the Edinburgh Festival, Scotland, NBC and BBC television and directing opera at the Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall in New York. Plastino was the 1991 National Dance Association Scholar of the Year.

Reservations for the free lectures are required; call (949) 824-7685 or e-mail beckerd@uci.edu by Oct. 11. A reception will follow the lectures.

UCI is a top-ranked public university dedicated to the principles of research, scholarship and community. Founded in 1965, UCI is among the fastest-growing University of California campuses, with approximately 22,000 undergraduate and graduate students and nearly 1,150 faculty members and clinicians. The third largest employer in dynamic Orange County, UCI contributes an annual economic impact that exceeds $2.65 billion.

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Contact:
Lisa Stieler
(949) 824-7687
lstieler@uci.edu

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